1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed to managing a large distributed computer enterprise environment and, more particularly, to implementing a monitoring task across distributed computing resources in the environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Enterprises now desire to place all of their computing resources on a computer network. To this end, it is known to connect computers in a large, geographically-dispersed network environment and to manage such an environment in a distributed manner. One such management framework consists of a server that manages a number of nodes, each of which has a local object database that stores object data specific to the local node. Each managed node typically includes a management framework, comprising a number of management routines, that is capable of a relatively large number (e.g., hundreds) of simultaneous network connections to remote machines. The framework manages hundreds of megabytes of local storage and can spawn many dozens of simultaneous processes to handle method requests from local or remote users. This amount of power, however, is quite costly. Each managed node requires upwards of a megabyte of local memory of disk plus a permanent TCP/IP connection. If a managed node sees heavy use, then such costs go up considerably. Moreover, as the number of managed nodes increases, the system maintenance problems also increase, as do the odds of a machine failure or other fault.
The problem is exacerbated in a typical enterprise as the node number rises. Of these nodes, only a small percentage are file servers, name servers, database servers, or anything but end-of-wire or "endpoint" machines. The majority of the network machines are simple personal computers ("PC's") or workstations that see little management activity during a normal day. Nevertheless, the management routines on these machines are constantly poised, ready to handle dozens of simultaneous method invocations from dozens of widespread locations, invocations that rarely occur.
When networks get very large, individual machines tend to lose their identity. Nevertheless, machines of certain classes share certain problems. To manage such distributed systems, it has been proposed to "abstract" a given "resource" in the distributed network into a so-called "model" to facilitate administration. Examples of distributed system resources include computer and communications hardware, operating system software, application programs, systems of programs cooperating to provide a service, and the like. Managing resource models (as opposed to specific resources) provides significant advantages. Thus, for example, by enabling an administrator to characterize the type or class of machine that should receive a particular task, resource model-based management obviates naming a vast host of machines explicitly or the distribution of tasks to all machines within a domain.
Although resource model-based management is desirable, existing schemes generally function by modeling resources at an individual node level. In many distributed environments, a given resource has an operating state that may be dependent on many other computing elements that are distributed across nodes throughout the enterprise. It would thus be desirable to provide a resource model-based management scheme that operates across distributed nodes. The present invention addresses this need in the art.